The Sower (June 1888)
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
Listen! A sower went out to sow . . .
Readings
(New American Bible:
Philippines, USA)
Readings
(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)
That same
day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a
boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen!
A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some
seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have
much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they
had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among
thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some
a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!’
[Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak
to them in parables?’ He answered, ‘To you
it has been given to know the secrets of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will
have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be
taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they
do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that
says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
But
blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and
righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear
what you hear, but did not hear it.
‘Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart;
this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown
on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it
with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a
while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that
person immediately falls away. As for what
was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the
world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who
hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one
case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’]
Green
Wheat Fields
Vincent
van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
Other seeds fell on good soil
Wheatfield with Reaper at Sunrise
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
and brought forth grain,
Harvest at La Crau (The Blue Cart)
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Wheat Field with a Lark
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
Let anyone with ears listen! (Matthew 13:1-9)
In the spring of 1982 I made the
Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius at Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. We spent 40 days there,
a few days of preparation for the Thirty-Day Retreat proper and five days of
reflection on the experience afterwards. One of the spiritual directors, though
not my own, was an American Jesuit priest named George. He was probably in his
60s at the time. He had worked for some years in South America and he was a
recovering alcoholic.
One evening I saw Father George come
out of the Jesuit residence dressed very nattily, wearing a rather nice sports jacket and hat, his pipe in one hand - and his rosary beads in the other. I said
to myself, 'That man has it all together!'
Head of a Young Peasant with Pipe
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
He gave unusual homilies, laced with
a delightfully dry and ironic humour. One was simply about a tiny bird - I think
it was a species of hummingbird - that migrates each year in both directiosn
between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America,
without stopping. All of us listening were filled with awe at God's creation,
at the power and endurance of one of God's creatures, one that didn't have the
power of reasoning but that knew how to get from one end of the landmass of the
Americas to the other and to know where to go.
The First Reading and its
Responsorial Psalm along with the Gospel invite us to reflect on how God's word
takes root in our hearts. But they also invite us to reflect on God's bounty as
revealed in nature itself. Isaiah tells us in the First Reading that it is
impossible for the rain and snow that God sends not to bear fruit: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and
do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring
forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that
which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).
Sunny Lawn in a Public Park
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
Psalm 64 [65], the Responsorial Psalm, echoes this:
You crown the year with your bounty
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
Jesus takes something simple in nature as an example of how God's word,
God's very life, takes root in our lives. But we can see God's loving power,
presence and bounty in the seed itself, without drawing any analogies or other
meanings from it. Those of us who aren't from a farming background can take for
granted the food that lands on our table. All the nourishment that we find in a
loaf of bread or in a bowl of rice is there already in the grains the farmer
sows. The seed of a husband fertilized by the egg of his wife becomes a new
human being containing already in its microscopic size all that will be evident
when that person is born and grows to maturity.
There is great emphasis today on the urgency of respecting nature and of
not abusing it, in order to avoid possible disastrous consequences.
But the basic reason we should respect all of nature is that it is an
expression of God's infinite bounty 'singing' in its own way: the hills
gird themselves with joy . . .
Father George conveyed something of that to all of us on retreat in
Guelph 38 years ago. Another Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, captured that in
some of his poems, including Pied Beauty, published 29 years after
his death and 41 years after he wrote it rather like the seed being buried in
the ground in spring and bearing fruit at harvest-time.
Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced — fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Gabriel's Oboe (The Mission)
Composed by Ennio Morricone (10 November 1928 - 6 July 2020)
Maja Łagowska – oboe, Andrzej Kucybała - conductor
Stanisław Moniuszko School of Music Orchestra in Bielsko
Biała, Poland
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the
profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the
Beyond. Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009. Ennio Morricone was one of the guests.
Ennio Morricone in 2012
Kyrie from Missa Papa Francisci
Composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone
Here performed for the first time, at a concert on 11 June 2015 in the Chiesa del Gesù, the Church of Jesus, the Jesuit church in Rome.
This Mass was composed to mark the 200th anniversary of the Restoration of the Jesuits and was dedicated to Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope.
Requiescat in pace - Rest in peace - Riposa in pace
